Opposite Extremes
by Armbar Nation
Summary: Companion one shot which takes place after chapter nine of my story There's A First Time For Everything. Seth Rollins and Ronda Rousey meet up with Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Renee Young for a quiet meal, but it ends up being quite the opposite. Ronda gets her first glimpse of what both extremes of life as a WWE star can be like. *Seth/Ronda story 2 of 11*


"Good evening, guys. A table for two?" a young female server asked with a warm smile as Seth Rollins walked into the restaurant with his new girlfriend, Ronda Rousey by his side. They had only been together for a week, and the relationship was not yet public knowledge, at least not for certain. There was speculation online, thanks to a selfie of them both which Ronda had uploaded to Instagram with a caption saying she loved him, but nothing had been confirmed.

They had met when Ronda had taken a job with WWE as a referee. She was now a week into a training program to help her towards joining the active roster, something that Seth was looking forward to almost as much as Ronda was herself. Tonight was going to be the first occasion that they would be spending time as a couple, with Seth's two closest friends, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose, as well as Dean's girlfriend Renee Young.

"No, thank you," Seth smiled at the server. "Our friends are already here, right over there. We're a little late." He pointed towards the table where the other three people were already seated and chatting away, drinks on the table in front of them. Seth and Ronda had been delayed by the fact that when Ronda had been in the shower, Seth had been unable to resist joining her in there for some sex.

"Okay, go right over," the server invited them. "Someone will be with you momentarily for your drink order."

Ronda giggled quietly as they headed towards the table and whispered to Seth, "Is that really Dean next to Renee?"

Dean's appearance was no real surprise to Seth, but he still grinned at Ronda's question. Dean was always on his best behaviour when he was around Renee, which was why he was dressed in a smart shirt, and had even made the effort to make his hair look almost presentable. His usual constant sarcasm and swearing would also be toned down significantly for the evening. It was not that Renee was a shrew of a girlfriend who would constantly complain at Dean and try to make him someone he was not, far from it, it was more to do with the fact that Dean knew that his usual behaviour was not appropriate for when he was around women in general, let alone his own girlfriend. The best part was that whenever Seth and Roman ribbed him about it, he would deny doing anything differently when he and Renee were together, which only served to increase the laughter which was had at his expense. The almost constant banter was one of the things that made the friendship between the three men so strong.

"Yeah, that's him," Seth confirmed. "Doesn't polish up too bad does he?"

"Neither do you," Ronda muttered, just before they reached the table.

"Hey guys," Seth greeted. "You've all met Ronda before at work."

Everyone exchanged greetings as the new arrivals took their seats opposite Dean and Renee respectively, with Roman sitting next to Dean opposite the empty chair at the table which was intended to seat six. Roman's wife did not work for WWE and therefore was not present. Wanting Ronda to feel welcome and comfortable among the group of friends, Roman made sure that she was included in conversation right from the off by asking her about her training. He knew that she had some issues with dealing with a long standing neck injury which she had recovered from physically, but was still struggling with mentally. Of course, he did not bring the injury up. It was actually Seth who was training Ronda at this early stage in her program, as he was the only one she had felt that she could trust to help her with the fact that she was frightened to take bumps on her previously injured neck.

After Seth and Ronda had ordered drinks, she excitedly talked through what they had covered in her training so far, telling them that she was enjoying it, as well as how much she was looking forward to getting in the ring as soon as it was possible.

"Have you given him a proper ass kicking yet?" Dean asked. In addition to her appearance, Dean knew Ronda's background. He therefore also knew that in reality she could make quick work of almost anyone in the WWE, male or female, if she chose to. It was not hard to see why Seth found her so attractive, she was beautiful as well as badass.

"We're still at the stage where he's giving them to me, but his time will come soon enough," Ronda grinned.

Seth had known that Dean, Roman and Renee would make Ronda feel comfortable, but he was still pleased to see her happily chatting away and smiling. The server returned with Seth and Ronda's drinks, then took everyone's food orders.

"Guess what, guys?" Roman asked when the server left the table.

"You're going to pay for all of us?" Renee guessed, giggling.

Everyone laughed, but Seth had noticed the excitement in his friend's eyes. "Go on, tell us," he smiled, guessing that it might be something to do with Roman's daughter.

"Sunday, the Rumble," Roman began before leaving a pause. "I'm winning it," he beamed.

"Fuck off, man," Dean exclaimed, excited.

"Dean, do you have to?" Renee chastised gently as Ronda and Seth also passed along their congratulations to Roman for what was going to be a huge step forward in his career. Winning the Royal Rumble meant that he was also guaranteed to be in the main event of Wrestlemania.

"You deserve it, bro, you really do," Seth told his friend, meaning every word. No one worked harder than Roman did behind the scenes and he was the one who kept both Seth and especially Dean in check when they needed it. The fact that Hunter and WWE in general were putting this much trust in him was not only fantastic, but well deserved. Roman thanked everyone for their kind words, and was in the process of telling them that not only was he going to win the match, but none other than The Rock, a relative of his and the biggest star that WWE had ever produced, was going to come out as a surprise during the rumble match and help him to win, when two other people approached the table, almost unnoticed.

"Seth Rollins," one of the new arrivals, a slightly overweight guy who looked to be in his early twenties slurred. Clearly he had put away too much alcohol, despite it being relatively early in the night. "Seth Rollins, I want to tell you something, man." The drunken guy's apparently equally drunken friend stood beside him, grinning.

This kind of thing was hardly uncommon for any of the stars of WWE, but that did not make it any less irritating. "We're on personal time here, guys," Seth said patiently, trying to be polite.

"You're a fucking dick," the intruder announced, sounding proud of himself. "It's your fucking fault we don't get to see the Shield any more." Next his attention turned to Roman and Dean. "How can you two sit down with this piece of shit after what he did?"

It was worse than Seth had first feared; not only had drunken fans approached him while he was trying to enjoy a night out with his girlfriend and his friends, which would have been bad enough, they were also marks, who believed that the storylines and characters they saw on WWE programming were real.

"Get lost, guys," Dean ordered, a lot less tactfully than Seth had been a moment earlier. "We're trying to enjoy a night out. Why don't you go do the same?"

"How can you enjoy a night out with this piece of crap?" The other nuisance fan demanded aggressively, sounding even more intoxicated than his friend.

Roman looked around for a member of staff so that he could tell them to have the two idiots removed, but there was no one around. He knew that things were moments away from getting out of hand, and he was proved right when Dean spoke. He definitely had the shortest fuse of the three men.

"I said fuck off," Dean said menacingly.

"Just get out of here, guys," Seth urged, somehow keeping his cool, despite being the actual target of the abuse. "We're not working, we're on our own time. If you want us to sign something or whatever we'll do it, but then you need to leave us be, okay?"

The two fans were standing at the end of the table where Seth and Dean were sitting which made the next thing the more inebriated of the two decided to do quite easy for him. "Sign this," he said aggressively and spat on the table top, right in front of Seth.

"For fuck's sake," Seth groaned, holding his hands up in exasperation as Dean jumped up.

"Fuck off, now!" Dean demanded. Renee was already up, urging him to calm down.

Unnoticed by Seth, Ronda had also got up and stormed around the back of his chair. Luckily, he was able to jump up quickly. "Disgusting piece of..." Ronda managed before Seth took hold of her and restrained her.

"Don't touch them, either of them," he urged her. "You're only going to get yourself in the shit, deep shit at that. Calm down."

Roman was now also standing at the opposite end of the table. He had finally managed to lay his eyes on a server, this one a guy, which was a positive. "Hey," he shouted, "Get someone over here and get these two jackasses out of here, will you?"

The server walked over and Roman explained the situation, struggling to make himself heard over the shouting match that was now going on between the two fans and Dean. The server had no intention of trying to deal with two drunken idiots himself, so he hurried off to fetch the restaurant's manager.

"Calm down," Seth urged Dean, walking around the table to take over from Renee in restraining him as he did not want her anywhere near anything that might get physical. On the same wavelength, Roman gently took Renee's arm and moved her aside. One of the fans had picked up Dean's almost full beer from the table while this was going on.

"You throw that at me, I'm going to kick your face in," Dean informed him, matter of fact.

Seth had heard Roman's exchange with the server, so when he reached Dean he wasted no time in grabbing him and dragging him away. "Leave it. Roman's got it covered."

"You know what?" the fan holding the beer asked Dean. "Actually, you're a bigger prick than he is." With that, he downed Dean's beer without pausing and banged the glass down on the table. His friend found this hilariously funny, and they both headed for the exit, laughing raucously.

"Fucking pricks," Dean growled as the restaurant's manager, a smartly dressed man who looked to be Hispanic, finally put in an appearance. Dean launched into him before he could say anything. "What kind of fucking place are you running here? We're trying to sit here enjoying a quiet drink and you let those two..."

"Dean, enough," Renee reprimanded sternly. "It's not this man's fault, and they're gone now."

"She's right, man, chill," Roman ordered, his authoritative voice automatically calming the situation.

"Let me apologise," the manager began earnestly, "That shouldn't have happened. If someone had told me who you were sooner, I would have had you seated in the back. We have private tables in there. If you'd like to follow me through now, I'll make sure that you get some complimentary drinks to compensate for the inconvenience."

"That sounds great," Roman accepted quickly on behalf of everyone. A couple of minutes later, the group were seated at a much more spacious table in an otherwise empty room in the back of restaurant, with their complimentary drinks in front of them. There was a set of doors which kept this area private from the rest of the restaurant's customers.

"I really can't believe what I just saw," Ronda exclaimed, shaking her head in disbelief. "People really are that stupid, huh? Buying into the storylines as if they're real? I mean, Christ almighty..."

"You'd be surprised," Seth told her with a humorless laugh. "You get regular marks like those two, but you also get the ones who think they are too smart to be marks, but they're still marks. They're the ones who think they helped Daniel Bryan overcome the odds and get to the top despite the higher ups back at the office. It's really amusing, honestly. When they're not spitting in front of you and trying to ruin your night out, that is."

Now having calmed down, Dean changed the subject of the conversation and within minutes everyone at the table was laughing along with his story about how he had once dealt with an aggressive fan in a parking lot back in his days on the independent circuit by grabbing him in a hug and planting a full-on kiss on the guy's lips. "I've never seen a dude run so fast," he concluded, laughing along with everyone else. With the mood lightened, conversation began to flow freely.

Ten minutes later, the restaurant's manager entered the room and approached the table, smiling. "Your food won't be much longer guys. I know you've already had a regrettable experience tonight, but I have a big fan of WWE outside who would love to meet you. I said I would come and ask the question and..."

"Really?" Dean demanded, cutting him off. "Really? After what happened earlier, you think we want to meet any more fans? We're on personal time here."

"I think the guy knows that," Seth said, calming his agitated friend yet again. "Yet he's still here asking us, so how about we listen?" He turned his attention to the manager. "Go on, what's the deal?"

"Her name's Maggie, she's a local girl," the manager began, "Her mother used to do some waitressing for me, but she was killed just over a year ago. She and Maggie were hit by a drunk driver who mounted the sidewalk. Maggie lost both of her legs as well as her mom that day. Now it's just her and her father. He can't work as he has to look after Maggie full time, and they don't have money, so I let them eat here once a week free of charge. She was at the WWE show tonight and she says she's a huge fan of you guys, especially Seth Rollins. Sorry, but I don't know which one of you that is. Anyway, she would love to meet you, if you're willing to spare her a few minutes? I know it would make her so happy, but I can totally understand if you'd rather not, what with what happened earlier and all."

"No, it's fine," Renee insisted on behalf of the group. "Bring her in, her dad too."

"Thank you," the manager smiled broadly, "You don't know what this will mean to her." With that, he turned and headed back into the restaurant.

"Why's it always you they love?" Roman asked Seth, pretending to sulk about it, which made Ronda laugh.

"What?" Seth laughed incredulously, pointing at Dean. "It's usually him!"

"What can I say?" Dean shrugged with fake arrogance.

The doors opened once more and were held open by the manager as a man who looked to be in his early forties at most, even though his hair was grey, pushed his daughter, Maggie, into the room in a wheelchair. "Come in, guys," Seth invited warmly, standing and walking over to greet the new arrivals.

"Oh my God," was all Maggie could gasp out, tears already streaming down her face at the sight of not only Seth Rollins, but also Roman and Dean in the same room as her. She was a very pretty girl in her late teens, with long brown hair. She was wearing a black t-shirt with a yellow Seth Rollins logo on it. Until her life had been ruined by some reckless motorist, she must have been sought after by a lot of teenage guys, Seth realised.

"It's good to meet you, Maggie," Seth said, kneeling down and hugging her. She wrapped her arms around him in return, but she was crying too heavily to reply to him. Everyone had stood from the table and walked over nearer to the visitors. Ronda looked at Roman, who was now beside her, with her eyebrows raised a little, clearly a little surprised by all of this, an understandable reaction from someone who was not used to being in the limelight to anything like the extent that WWE stars were.

"Don't cry sweetheart," Seth urged Maggie gently. "Give Roman your phone and he's going to get a picture of us. You don't want to look like that, do you?"

"No," Maggie managed to mumble as she wiped her tears away as best she could.

Roman took her phone and got ready to take a picture as Seth moved around to crouch beside Maggie. Dean introduced himself and Renee to Maggie's father, who revealed that his name was Martin. Waiting while Roman lined up the shot, Seth could not help thinking that moments like this were what made all of the negative aspects of working for WWE, and there were more than people might think, so worthwhile. The travel was a nightmare at times, living out of hotel rooms sucked, and there were occasionally confrontations with so called fans such as they had experienced earlier in the night. But the chance to make someone like Maggie this happy was very humbling.

The phone's camera flashed. "Wait, that's blurred. Let me try again," Roman said. The camera flashed again and this time Roman smiled. "Perfect." He handed the phone back over to Maggie, who was now more in control of herself.

"Thank you so much for letting me come back here," she said to Seth. "You don't know what this means to me. I've wanted to meet you for, like, forever."

"You're very welcome," Seth smiled warmly. "Ronda, come over and meet Maggie."

Ronda walked over. Unsure what to say, she smiled warmly at Maggie before they exchanged a brief hug. Maggie solved the problem for her by laughing as she said, "You broke my heart the other day. You're with my man."

"If he goes missing, I know who to come after then, don't I?" Ronda laughed.

"I can't run very fast," Maggie pointed out, still laughing. Hearing her say that struck a chord somewhere within Seth and he felt himself feeling very emotional, which surprised him. He had met a lot of disabled and terminally ill fans in his time with WWE. The vast majority of them were brave about their health situations, but he had seldom, if ever, heard anyone actually make a joke at their own expense as Maggie just had. It also made him wonder why Maggie was confined to a wheelchair. As far as he knew, they were able to give people prosthetic legs these days. Losing your legs was of course an awful and life changing event, but in this day and age it did not have to confine you to a wheelchair for life. He watched Ronda and Maggie chatting away for a few moments before Ronda offered to take a picture of her with all of the Shield members together. With this picture taken, it was time for Roman and Dean to take turns to pose with her separately, which gave Seth the chance to introduce himself to Maggie's father.

"Thanks so much for this," Martin said with real feeling after the introductions were completed. "It's nice just to see her smiling like that," he added, looking over at his daughter as she posed with Dean for a picture.

"It's no problem at all," Seth smiled. "I'm very sorry about what happened, and for your loss. Losing your wife like that must have been... I can't even imagine."

"I thought I was going to lose both of them," Martin mumbled. "Every time I look at Maggie, I don't know if I should thank God that she's here, or curse him for what happened that day."

Seth was not a religious man, so he found himself short of something to say in response to that. After an awkward pause, auto pilot took over. "We have the Royal Rumble coming up Sunday. What would you guys say to some free tickets? I can hook you up."

"I couldn't ask you to do that," Martin said quickly.

"You didn't ask me, I offered. How about it?"

"Maggie would love that, we both would," Martin said, seemingly shocked that someone would do something like this for him and his daughter. Again Seth, felt his heart strings being pulled on. The impression he got was that this man did everything he could to make his daughter happy, but most of the time it was a battle that he was on the losing side of, and that was of course without dealing with his own grief at the loss of his wife and the fact that his daughter had lost her legs. If he could offer both of them a night of enjoyment and happiness, he was more than happy to do so.

"Maggie?" Martin called out. "Seth has something to ask you."

"What?" Maggie asked, a slightly confused smile on her face.

"I just wondered if, uh," Seth let his voice trail off, making out that he wasn't sure about what he wanted to say. "I wondered if you might like to be front row at the Royal Rumble Sunday?"

"Oh my God, really?" Maggie almost screamed. "Yes! Yes, please. I mean, I don't know what to say. Thank you so much."

"You just said yes, that's all you needed to say," Seth said kindly. "I'll get it organised and have someone contact your dad, okay?"

Seth could see tears in Maggie's eyes again as she repeatedly thanked him and everyone else in the room as if she could not possibly express what she felt, no matter how many times she said it. After Seth saved Martin's number into his phone, everyone chatted for another couple of minutes before Martin remembered that the WWE stars had been enjoying a private evening together and told Maggie that it was time for them to leave. Yet again, Maggie thanked everyone profusely, and with that Martin wheeled her towards the door.

"Maggie?" Seth called out, stopping them in the doorway. Martin turned the wheelchair around.

"What?" Maggie asked, smiling nervously.

"I see you at ringside in a Cena shirt, you and I are through. Understood?"

Maggie burst out laughing, "Cena? You've got to be joking, right?" With everyone in the room laughing, Maggie and Martin departed and Renee closed the doors behind them.

"What an amazing girl," Ronda said to Seth as they returned to the table and sat down. "You were really great with her, Seth."

"It's moments like that which make this the best job in the world," Seth smiled. "You've seen the opposite extremes tonight, babe, but the positives sure outweighs the negatives."

Ronda kissed him softly, feeling so happy to be with such an amazing guy as Seth Rollins.


End file.
